Seminar: Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2013 at 3:30 pm

Interferometry with expanding Bose-Einstein condensate in microgravity can be exploited to probe fundamental physics at the border between quantum mechanics and general relativity.

In particular millions of atoms in a BEC can be described by a single macroscopic wave function which oers itself for quantum interference experiments aimed to test the weak equivalence principle.

In this talk I will describe the physics behind the BEC expansion and interference in microgravity in the time-dependent Thomas-Fermi (TF) regime in generic interferometric congurations and taking into account rst order corrections in perturbation theory.

In particular, by using an asymmetric Mach-Zehender conguration interference fringes for expanding BEC in microgravity have been recently observed in pioneering experiments within our QUANTUS collaboration

[1]. Such experiments not only represent a perfect test for future experiments in orbit but also gives us an important motivation in pursuing further exciting research based on quantum gravimeters for ground based applications.